Things that gross you out..

Nursing Students General Students

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i am starting nursing school in september...and as far as what i will encounter, i'd say not too much makes me squeemish. blood, puke, defecation....doesnt bother me. open wounds, dead bodies, surgery....interests me. the one thing that makes me squeemish and i'm not sure how i'm going to handle once i see it in person is really weird.

the idea of putting a tournaquet on and seeing the veins pop out, and poking and prodding them...that makes me sick to my stomach. when i get blood drawn...i absolutely hate it...not because of the needle or blood....but the tournaquet. i cant even look at it, and the idea of it makes me sick. i dont know why...it seems weird. i guess the only way to overcome it is to force myself to do it when im in school...facing your fears i guess...

what are some things you have to do day to day that gross you out?

when a neurosurgeon is placing an evd or bolt and grinding through the skull...blech!

trach's always gross me out, even though I work with them all the time.

emptying/measuring suction canisters and jp drainage.

digging around for an art stick.

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Nothing TRULY grosses me out but I hate dealing with eye injuries. It's not so much a gross out as it is an "Oh dear God that has to hurt!" moment.

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Specializes in ICU, Research, Corrections.

Urine so purulent that you can see ropes in the foley tubing, false eyeballs, dentures. I am fine with everything else!

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Specializes in Cardiac.

Pt with hepatic encephalopathy taking lactulose. Ammonia stools are the WORST!!

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Specializes in NICU.

Why was this moved to general nursing students? just because I said I was a student? i want to hear gross things from actual nurses who do this work every day....thats why I posted it where I did!

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Specializes in Informatics, Orthopaedics.

Midget clowns. Oh and athlete's foot... :barf01:wash those puppies! Actually pretty much anything that involves something that shouldn't be there growing in/under/over the skin...maggots, fungus, small trees, whatever.

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Specializes in Telemetry.

Dentures - I hate dentures!! When I was a CNA I would dread having to remove and clean them. I don't know what it is about them but the really gross me out - I'll take puke and poop any day over fake teeth!!

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The worst thing I have ever had to deal with was not in my job but I came upon a very nasty accident and this man had his arm nearly completely removed from his body. The fact that the blood was just pouring out of his arm like a faucet made me very light headed. He survived but my gosh that was a gut wretching feeling to have to deal with

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Specializes in ER & ICU.

the smell of the psudemonus infection makes me squeemish :redlight:

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I love the sight and feel of a big, juicy vein! I look at people's veins all the time (not just on the job) and I even find myself oogling veins on TV. The only thing better than the sight and feel of them is the sense of success when I insert a perfect heplock into one.

Not much grosses me out, at least not anymore, but I'll tell you what does: lady partss. lady partss in any context, but especially post-op ones with the packing inside. I don't like catheterizing women, I don't like looking at lochia when I am unlucky enough to get a post-pardum woman on my med-surg floor for some reason, I don't like anything about that body part.

I'm not crazy about uncircumcized member either, and I had never even encountered that before going into nursing. Ironic as it sounds, it seems very unnatural to me (in Jewish culture, every male gets circumcision and nobody is upset about the practice like they are in the gentile community)

Oh, and C-diff stool grosses me out.

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Sputum. Ugh... I can't eat cream soups anymore!Also vomit. The sound, smell, texture..

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for me, the worst thing to see is suction drainage. i am a student and i remember walking into a pt room and checking on him and there it was on his nightstand in the drainage pitcher/container (forget actual name :lol2:). just that alone made me act like i had to sneeze, walk into his bathroom to gag; then my mind started "playing with me" lol, because i started thinking of how long it was sitting there, getting cold ----woooo!!!! gotta stop typing there!!!! :bluecry1: my eyes were watery then and now haha!

the other thing i can't stand is very bad breath, bad oral hygiene, dried, or white-cracked, peeling lips.

i "gag inside my head" when i take off someone's socks to check pedal pulses/circulation/skin color and see chunks of very dry skin fall off, leaving "crumbs" on their bed -and there is usually a fowl smell that goes with that. :eek:

i can't stand when i'm in a room with a coworker and they fling or wave the pt's sheet or blanket because i feel like i'm breathing and eating all their nasty m.o.'s --which i am, that's why they teach ya in cna school not to do that in the first place :nono:.

thick-cloudy, extreme stench-ridden urine. :bluecry1:

i still get gaggy from time to time with feces.

oh! and i can't stand when a pt wants me to call a family member from their cellular phone, or even touch it to dial a number for them. they look at me like i'm crazy when i get my gloves on. :lol2: i know my cellphone is dirty -i can deal with my cooties, but not "unknown" cooties from oily ears and hair against my ears -no way! :lol2:

i'm cracking up just thinking of what a "bad nurse" i must seem like -but i assure you, i'm not :D.

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